The Would-Be Toxic Avenger

Attorney General John Kroger campaigned on a promise to put polluters behind bars. So why hasn’t he prosecuted a big case?

John Kroger - ILLUSTRATION: Dennis Culver

Tags:

When he ran for office, Attorney General John Kroger said
the state’s prosecution of polluters was inadequate and he would put the
worst ones behind bars. Three years later, one has done time: a
landscaper who dumped 60 truckloads of dirt, barrels and plastic pipes
on his foreclosed property. He did two days in the Marion County jail.

Kroger made
environmental prosecutions a cornerstone of his 2008 campaign, promising
to bust toxic polluters. He reminds Oregonians in every press release
that protecting the environment is part of the state Department of
Justice’s mission.

Kroger has prosecuted
more polluters than any Oregon attorney general, but records show
they’ve been small targets: individuals dumping polluted water or
drilling illegal wells, and a Linn County dairy mishandling cow wastes.

His agency hasn’t charged a big polluter or made a casethat shows widespread environmental crimes have gone unpunished.

“We have fulfilled
the promise of looking at these cases differently,” says Kroger
spokesman Tony Green. “It’s a little on the unreasonable side to look at
cases that have been completed in less than two years’ time as
measurement of whether an attorney general has done what he promised.”

Kroger won support
from environmental groups in 2008, and today some say his work provides a
disincentive for companies to break state pollution laws.

“The cases may not
be on the scale of the BP oil spill, thank goodness, but the fact he’s
prosecuting cases changes the equation,” says Sue Marshall, a policy
consultant with Tualatin Riverkeepers. “When they pursue these as
criminal cases, the word gets out.”

The Department of
Environmental Quality is the cop on the beat and can levy civil
penalties. Kroger, during his campaign, said many DEQ cases deserved
criminal prosecution but district attorneys didn’t have the time,
experience or inclination.

Lawmakers approved
Kroger’s environmental crimes unit in 2009, and it’s had five
convictions out of 53 investigations. Nine more with charges remain
open. (This count doesn’t include fish and wildlife cases, which the
state already completed, or those led by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.) Another 14 are under investigation.

The case against George Joseph Davenport is typical. The state alleged Davenport, 30,who
worked for D&S Water Services of Salem, pumped thousands of gallons
of oily wastewater from car-wash holding tanks into storm drains in
2009. Davenport pleaded guilty to misdemeanor water pollution charges
and was sentenced to 36 months probation, 120 hours community service
and a $1,500 fine.

One major case
Kroger’s office declined to prosecute involved Bandon Pacific. Owned by
Dulcich Inc.—which runs Pacific Seafood Group, one of the West Coast’s
largest seafood distributors—Bandon Pacific disclosed in 2008 that it
failed to monitor its wastewater. The state found more than 4,000
water-quality violations, including fish carcasses dumped in the
Coquille River.

In December 2009, the
DEQ levied a $208,554 civil fine against Bandon Pacific, but it wasn’t
the first time for its owner. The DEQ says it has fined Dulcich
subsidiariesseven times, including a $40,591 fine three months earlier.

Bandon Pacific
looked like the kind of case Kroger said he would pursue—egregious,
prominent and big enough to send a signal to polluters. But Green says
Bandon Pacific reported the problems, the DEQ’s fines seemed adequate
punishment, and there was no new evidence of laws being broken.

“We had to consider
how to explain to a judge that the 11th-largest fine in DEQ history
hadn’t adequately resolved the matter,” Green says. “Without evidence of
pollution after the fine, we did not feel we could meet our burden.”

Kroger’s most
prominent case turned out to be a bit of a fiasco. Hood River Juice had
been charged by the local district attorney with 18 felony counts,
mostly for water pollution. Kroger’s office later took over the case.

Kroger’s
environmental counsel, Brent Foster, failed to disclose he had
personally tested wastewater near the Hood River Juice plant. Foster
resigned in April 2010, undermining the case’s credibility.

Hood River Juice
pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of water pollution and one
count of making a false statement to the DEQ. The company’s owner, David
Ryan, pleaded guilty to one count of each.

Hood River Juice’s
attorney, David Angeli, says the state’s prosecution was overkill. “I’m
not saying there aren’t companies that deserve to be investigated,”
Angeli says. “But I think [Kroger] ran on a false premise about
environmental crimes to begin with. It’s not the widespread problem he
made it out to be.”

"In the low usage areas, we found that our vehicles sit idle four times longer, ultimately affecting overall vehicle availability for the Portland membership base, as well as parking for the Portland community."

News
East Portland can't catch a break.Just this week KGW had a story called, "Diverse, non-cool East Por... More